


Flygirls

by fandom-pandom (Pan_in_the_Fandom)



Category: Captain Marvel (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Be prepared for a wedding or commitment ceremony in here somewhere., But you're going to have to earn it, Eventual Smut, F/F, Falling In Love, Fluff, Light Angst, Military
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-01-13 16:16:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18472519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pan_in_the_Fandom/pseuds/fandom-pandom
Summary: I was listening to the official Captain Marvel soundtrack and I got hit with some Feels. I started imagining Carol and Maria falling in love, and what would happen if Carol stayed on Earth instead of going missing for 6 years.





	1. Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to the official Captain Marvel soundtrack and I got hit with some Feels. I started imagining Carol and Maria falling in love, and what would happen if Carol stayed on Earth instead of going missing for 6 years.

Up in the clouds, flying over fields and forests, Carol felt like she could see everything. But her life when she touched down was different. She could barely see eyes on her, waiting for her to do something wrong so they had an excuse to get rid of her. These zoomies didn’t like flygirls up in their airspace, she knew, but she was chronically distracted.

She was acting casual right now, drinking with Maria after hours, but the truth was when they were in proximity, her vision tunneled and she forgot anyone else was in the room. They laughed together like they’d known each other a lifetime or more already. She hoped Maria didn’t notice that when she placed a hand on Carol’s shoulder, Carol was sure to start sweating. And the sweating made her thirstier. The whiskey wasn’t enough to sate it, and it didn’t seem to be enough to keep the edge off. “I should head back to my place,” she bemoaned.

“Okay then, let’s go,” Maria replied.

“You don’t have to get home to Monica?”

Maria sighed. “Her dad has her for the week. I wouldn’t be here with your messy ass otherwise, Danvers. C’mon. I don’t have all night.”

“Hey! Just cuz I’m messy doesn’t mean I’m drunk, okay?” Carol put some money on the bar and got up. She and Maria left the bar and got in Maria’s car. Maria turned the key in the ignition and as the car started, so did the radio, in the middle of a Prince song.

_I just need your extra time and your..._

As the guitar riff played, Maria and Carol’s eyes locked on each other, and then on each other’s lips.

_Kiss._

Maria averted her gaze and turned around to check behind her as she backed out. Carol could kill herself right now. That was a shot, and she missed it. She was kicking herself all the way back to her place.

When they got there, Carol sat for a second just looking at the exterior of the apartment complex. She looked at Maria. “Well uh, thanks for making sure I get home safe, Rambeau.” she said.

Maria looked at her in disbelief. “You really think I’m just gonna drop you off and not make sure you get in okay? Not tonight, Danvers.”

Carol watched Maria get out of the car before she shook herself and realized she should do the same. “Come on, then.” she said, her keys ready as they went up a flight of stairs. They went through a couple of hallways and past a few doors before they got to 208. “This is me,” she said, and fumbled with that key she thought was ready before. She tried to push the key into the lock, but it was the wrong way.

“Not drunk, huh? Not even a bit impaired?”

“I’m not! I’m just a complete fucking idiot.” Carol put the key in another way, and it fit. She still had trouble remembering which direction to turn it at first, because Maria was within breathing distance.

Finally, she got the door open, and gestured for Maria to go on in. Her place was a mess, empty pizza boxes and dirty clothes and beer bottles everywhere. “See? Messy.” Maria said as she came inside and took off her jacket.

“You’re not wrong,” Carol shrugged, closing the door. She took Maria’s jacket, folded it, and put on a chair. “You know me too well for someone I’ve only known, what, like, eight months?”

“Nine,” Maria corrected her.

“You’ve been counting?”

“I just remember the day we met real well is all, Danvers. Soon as I met you, I knew you were a force of nature, you know.” Maria smiled, and Carol felt her body turn to putty.

Carol cleared her throat. “Uh, yeah, I kinda felt the same.”

Maria got in close. “Carol?” Carol got goosebumps both by hearing Maria call her by her first name and having Maria in such close proximity to her again.

“Yeah, Maria?”

“I’d like to stay for a while. If you’ve got the time.”

“What? Yeah, yeah, of course.” Carol was having trouble thinking. Or speaking. Or much of anything.

Maria was surveying the house, and stopped at Carol’s record collection. She thumbed through it. She stopped at a Donna Summer album, and Carol’s pulse quickened. Maria knew just where to drop the needle to play the track she wanted. Carol about fainted when “Love to Love You Baby” started, with the sounds Donna Summer was making.

Maria started dancing and gestured Carol to come over to her. Carol warily walked towards her, but then Maria took her by the waist and kissed her, hands running up and down her body. Carol’s was humming like a jet in midair. She returned the kiss, but with a mighty hunger. Her hands started searching for buttons to undo. Maria did the same. Clothes flew off. They flew from the living room to the bedroom, with a few bumps against the wall on the way, and landed on the bed, eager to explore each other’s bodies.


	2. First Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after. Carol and Maria talk about their feelings. So much fluff.
> 
> Note I forgot last time: "zoomies" is Air Force slang for people who have graduated from the Air Force Academy, which is commonly called the "zoo."

Carol woke up with her arm around Maria, and turned to face her. Both of them were in their underwear. She took a moment to fix a freeze frame of Maria asleep to her mind, to keep and call on when she needed a positive thought.

Maria turned over facing her, still asleep, hair messy from last night’s activities, a strand in her face. Carol tucked that strand of hair behind Maria’s ear, smiling. Maria stirred and her eyes opened slowly, hazily.

“Good morning.” Carol said, quietly, nearly a whisper.

“Good morning. How long have you been watching me sleep?”

“Not long. I was just drinking it in. The moment. You looked so serene. I’ve never seen you like that.” Carol took Maria’s hand and kissed it. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For doing what I couldn’t. Making the first move. I’ve never been nervous like that around anyone before. With men, it’s -”

Maria nodded slightly, “It’s different. There’s less risk.”

“And I didn’t care much with them, in the past. It was, I don’t know, business-like. A transaction. I wasn’t feeling, you know, this.”

“Yeah. I’ve had feelings for people, but they didn’t feel the same.”

“For Monica’s dad?”

Maria shifted out of Carol’s arms and faced the ceiling. “That wasn’t about feelings. That was about expectations. I loved him, sure, in a way. But I convinced myself he was my soulmate, you know? Because I was trying to be a certain person. The person everyone wanted me to be. Monica wasn’t planned, but I am thankful to have met her dad, because she’s the best gift I’ve ever gotten.”

“She is pretty great. And so’s her mom.”

“Thank you, I know. You’re not so bad yourself. We should talk, though. About what we’re going to do. How we’re going to act when we’re on base.”

“People know we’re close. They probably won’t think we’re, you know. This. Most people’s minds don’t go there. They know that girls who like girls exist, but they don’t really think about it, except in a ‘ooh that’s hot’ kinda way.”

“We’ve still gotta be careful.” Maria said, severely. “You know what’ll happen if people find out about this. We could lose everything.”

“We’d be kicked out, yeah. But we wouldn’t lose everything, right? We’d have each other.”

“I could lose Monica, Carol.”

Carol sat up a bit. “I would never let that happen. I love her too, you know. The two of you are my world.”

“Yeah. And flying isn’t?”

“I could, you know, fly commercial.”

“You’d hate it.”

“I’d do it if it meant I didn’t have to hide how much you mean to me.”

Maria sat up, too, and crossed her arms. “Not an option, okay? Are you hearing me right now? It’s ‘88 and people think gay men get AIDS because God wants them to die for their sinful lifestyles.”

Carol sighed. “I know. I just wish it wasn’t like that in this world. I want to walk down the street holding your hand, to hold you, kiss you, and not have to worry that someone’s going to try to attack us for it.”

“That’s not how it is. I don’t know if that’ll even change in our lifetimes. In 8th grade, I had a friend. Her name was Jesse.”

“Gay.”

“Let me finish! Her name was was Jesse, and we were, you know, close. We went everywhere together. We barely spent a moment apart. She would sleep over at my house or me at hers every night. We would get dressed together. And you know, I looked. Couldn’t help myself. She was beautiful. Sometimes I caught her looking, too.

“So one time I said, ‘I can’t take this. I like you. I know you like me. We should stop pretending we don’t. We should do something about it.’ And grabbed her and I kissed her and poured all the feelings I’d been building up into that kiss. She kissed me back. The kissing turned into more. I had her bra off when my dad walked in.”

“Oh, no.”

“It was bad. My parents told hers, and they told us we could never see each other again. We were supposed to stay away from each other even though we had the same homeroom class. My dad told me to pray and ask God for forgiveness. And I did. But every time I laid eyes on her, the feelings came rushing back.

“I fought them, but, eventually I couldn’t anymore. I gave her a note, and it said to meet me under the bleachers, which was, you know, what the straight kids did. So she did. And we finally consummated those feelings, afraid the whole time somebody would catch us and tell our parents and we would be shipped off to some private school or kicked out of our parents’ houses or whatever. That just made it hotter. We missed two class periods because we couldn’t keep our hands off each other.

“We kept this up all year, seeing each other in secret. But someone must’ve seen us, because our parents found out. My dad gave me a beating the likes of which you’ve probably never seen. So from then on, when I felt some kind of way for a girl, I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t do anything about it. Until I went to the Academy, but that’s another story. I don’t think there’s a single straight flygirl on the planet.”

Carol chuckled. “I don’t know about all that. I kept to myself at the academy. Nobody wanted to be associated with me because of my smart mouth. I could take orders, but if they were dumb, I damn well said something to that effect. I did so much toilet scrubbing and so many push-ups. But I graduated anyway.”

Maria also laughed. “Sounds like you haven’t changed much since those days.”

“It’s a fatal character flaw and will probably get me court-martialed one day.” Carol lamented, mostly in jest. “If this doesn’t. Maria, all my life I liked women. I just pushed it down, didn’t do anything. I would date guys and try to make myself like them, and they were okay, but I never craved them, and certainly never loved them, you know? If I felt love, it was for women, and I just tried to ignore it and hoped it would go away.”

Maria looked at Carol, inquisitively. “Girl, are you saying last night was your first time with a woman?”

Carol’s cheeks flushed. “Was it - okay?”

Maria laughed again. “Are you kidding? Fireworks. I never would’ve guessed I was your first.”

Carol heaved a sigh of relief. “Good. Because I wanted to give you that. I’ve wanted to show you for a long time now how much I care about you. I was just afraid I wasn’t reading your signals right, or what I was reading was just wishful thinking, or you would report me.”

“Please. Like you didn’t know how I felt. Last week, when I sang ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ for karaoke night, I was singing to you, you know. That was a proposition.”

Carol put her forehead in her palm. “I thought you just really liked Lita Ford.”

Maria raised an eyebrow. “Really? When I pointed at you? When I pulled you up on stage to sing with me? When I looked into your eyes when I was singing it? You didn’t see how much I wanted you?”

“I guess I did, I was just doubting myself about it. I wanted to kiss you.”

“You really were a mess. But you know how I feel now, right?”

“I think so. But could you say it?”

Maria abruptly planted a peck on Carol’s lips.

“Is that all?” Carol pouted.

“No, it’s not.” Maria pulled Carol into her and kissed her more vigorously, slipping in a bit of tongue. Carol moaned a bit. She backed off and put some space between them. “Got it?”

“I wanna hear the words!” Carol whined. “I’ll say it. I love you. I think maybe I always have. I think I loved you even before we met. That my heart was preparing for you all this time.”

“Okay, sap, that’s enough. Yes. I love you. And I don’t say that lightly. I don’t know when it started, but now it feels like it was always there for me, too.”

“Damn, why did we waste so much time?”

“We’re a couple of damn idiots.”

Carol nodded. “That’s the truth, Rambeau.”

Maria put a finger up in warning. “Don’t you ever call me by my last name while you’re in bed with me. Danvers and Rambeau when we’re on base or in public where some zoomies might spot us. Carol and Maria when we’re at home and it’s just the two of us or us and Monica.”

“Can I be Monica’s other mom now? Can I adopt your kid?”

“Not legally. But I think she sees you as her other mom anyway.”

“Mom 2: The Sequel.” Carol joked.

“Mom 2: This Time It’s Personal.” Maria countered.

“Mom 2: New and Improved.”

“Excuse you?” Maria said, feigning offense.

“I said what I said,” Carol said, challenging.

“Come over here and I’ll show you an improvement.” Maria responded, pulling Carol back in and pressing her lips to Carol’s. Carol moaned again and moved a hand to Maria’s chest. Maria climbed on top of Carol and pushed her flat on the bed. She kissed Carol’s abs, feeling Carol’s skin turn hot and starting to pick up some perspiration.

“We’re not leaving this bed today, are we?” Carol whispered.

Maria moved from Carol’s stomach to her face and locked her lips with hers. She released them briefly. “Not if I can help it,” she replied, eyes gleaming mischievously.

“Thank God.” Carol pushed Maria to her side and got on top of her. “I’m enjoying you too much to let you leave.”


	3. Kiss Me Deadly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karaoke night (based on movie canon) and Carol and Maria unwind, only to end up going back home to Monica and enjoying some moments of domesticity. Long chapter

Carol and Maria went to Lucky 7’s, a bar way in town far away from the base, where hopefully nobody would recognize them, and hopefully nobody in the Air Force would start asking questions about the nature of their relationship. It was karaoke night, and Maria was choosing the song. They always sang together. It was their thing.

They got called up on stage, the booze having loosened them up. The music intro for “Kiss Me Deadly” played. This was one of Carol’s faves, and Maria knew it.

 _“I went to the party last Saturday night,  
I didn’t get laid, I got in a fight, uh-huh  
it ain’t no big thing.” _  
  
They made exquisite eye contact, as if they were singing just to each other and no one else was there. When it got to,  
  
_“Kiss me once,_  
_kiss me twice,_  
_come on pretty baby, kiss me deadly,”_  
  
Carol forgot herself and planted a kiss on Maria’s lips, which tasted like home somehow, even though they had only been together romantically for about a week. The men in the bar whooped it up, and Carol remembered that public displays of affection are dangerous for two women, even if they have military training. She got thrown off and stopped singing. Maria stopped, too. Carol walked off stage and went to the bathroom, Maria following her.

Carol leaned over the sink, panting, panicking. “I’m sorry,” she said to Maria. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Maria smiled and stood next to Carol, and grabbed her face and turned it to her, holding it with both hands. “It’s okay, Carol. Nobody here knows us. That’s why we came here, remember? So we could be ourselves? Nobody’s going to say anything except, you know ‘that’s hot, do it again.’ We’re together, and we’re okay.”

“I just lose my head around you. What if I do that when we’re on base? What if someone recognizes us? What if I ruin everything for us? Maybe all this was a bad idea.”

Maria moved her hands to hold one of Carol’s.  “By ‘all this,’ you mean being together? I don’t think either of us could go back to being just friends at this point, do you?”

“No. I’m so fucking stupid, though, Maria. How can you stand to be with me?”

“I love you, stupid.”

A woman walked into the bathroom, and gave them a pointed glare before entering one of the stalls.

“Let’s go home. Monica’s waiting for you.”

“Sure, the sitter will need a break anyway.”

 

* * *

 

 

Monica ran to hug Maria and then Carol as they came through the door. The sitter, a 50-something woman, nodded at them in recognition. “I hope she behaved herself tonight,” Maria said, fumbling through her wallet to get the cash she promised early that night.

“She’s got a lot of energy, but she minds me just fine.” replied the sitter, taking the cash. “Be good for your mama.” she said, walking out the door.

“Carol, come see!” Monica took Carol’s hand and led her to the living room, where she had drawn… something. Carol couldn’t figure out what the scribble was supposed to represent.

“Wow! You’re such a talented artist!”

“It’s a unicorn!” Monica said proudly.

“I see that!” Carol lied. “It’s beautiful!”

“Her name is Captain Sparkleshine!”

Maria chuckled. “Captain Sparkleshine, huh? Not princess?”

Monica crossed her tiny arms. “No! Princesses don’t do anything but wear dresses and look pretty. Captains are pretty but also tough and in charge of people!”

“Like your mama, huh?” Carol asked.

“Like mama and me and you. We’re all three captains!”

“Well, I’ll have to let our CO know that you’ve decided that,” Maria squeezed Monica affectionately.

“Mama, are you and Carol getting married?”

“What?” Maria looked startled.  
  
“You love each other, right? Why don’t you marry each other?”

Carol smiled, in wonder of Monica’s perceptiveness but simple view of the world. “I love you and your mom very much. But we can’t get married.”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“There are some people, hateful people, who don’t like it when two women love each other, baby. The law says we can’t get married to each other, and if even if we could, people like your dad would use it to try to take you away from me.” Maria said.  
  
“No! Mama, I want to stay with you and Carol!”  
  
“That’s why your mom and I have to tell people we’re just friends,” Carol told her.

“I want you to be my other mama,” Monica whined.

“I can’t adopt you legally,” Carol explained, “But if I’m your mama in your heart, that’s all that matters, okay? If you want to call me mama, that’s okay. If it’s okay with your other mama.”  
  
“It’s okay,” Maria said. “If you really want to. But right now, it’s time for bed for you, young lady.”

Monica groaned. “But I want to stay up with you, mamas!” she protested.

“We have all day tomorrow for the three of us to do whatever we want,” Maria said, firmly. “But you’ve got to get ready to go to sleep for the night. Go brush your teeth, okay?”

“But mooooom,”

“Do what your mama says,” Carol told her. “I don’t want to see you get in trouble.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Monica replied, dejectedly.

* * *

 

Monica brushed her teeth, changed into her pajamas, and crawled into bed. “Will you read me a story, Carol?” she asked, as Maria sat on the foot of her bed and tucked her in, while Carol stood in the doorway.

“Maria?” Carol asked for guidance.  
  
“One quick story. And then you close your eyes and get to sleep.”

“Yay!”

“Which one do you want to hear? Goodnight Moon?”

“Tell me the one about how you met mama.” Monica demanded.

“You’ve heard that one about a dozen times!” Maria laughed.

“I like it!” Monica pouted.

“It’s fine,” Carol assured Maria. “Not too long ago, I was assigned to this base, because people didn’t like me at your old one.”

“Because you had an attitude!” Monica declared.

“That’s right, I did. Which is bad, and you should not follow my example. But anyway, on that day, I realized my reputation had followed me here. Nobody wanted to talk to me outside of our assignments. I sat alone at a table at the cafeteria. But then, your mom came and asked if it was okay for her to sit with me.”

“You thought she was pretty, didn’t you?” Monica teased.  
  
“She is pretty!”  
  
“You got that right.” Maria winked.

“When I saw her that first time, I knew she was going to be important in my life. That everything in my life had been leading up to that moment. We got to talking, and we didn’t stop until lunch hour was over and we had to get back to work, but I didn’t stop thinking about her. After we were done for the day, she found me, and asked me if I’d like to spend time with her off base. And we’ve been close ever since.”  
  
“You mean you’ve been in love ever since.”  
  
“I guess so. But we didn’t say so until just a week ago.”

“That’s silly.”  
  
Maria laughed. “You’re right. We should’ve said it a long time ago. But now it’s time for you to say goodnight to Carol and me.”

“I want a goodnight hug!”

Maria and Carol each gave Monica a hug and then turned out the lights. “Goodnight, Monica,” Carol whispered from the doorway, as they closed the door. “Love you.”

She turned to Maria with a tear in her eye.

“What’s wrong?” Maria asked.

“I’ve never had somewhere that felt like home before. But anywhere with you and Monica does. And I’m scared. What if I lose you?”

Maria gave her a hug and whispered in her ear. “I won’t let that happen, okay? I’ll do whatever it takes to keep us together. I promise.” Maria led Carol to the couch as Carol broke into full sobs, overwhelmed with love and fear. Maria started crying as well. They held each other until the tears stopped coming, and then again until they felt settled. “I think it’s time for us to go to bed now, don’t you think?” Maria asked.

Carol nodded. “Thanks. For, uh, being there for me tonight, through all my emotional bullshit.”  
  
“I would be a pretty crappy girlfriend if I wasn’t.”

“Let’s go, then. It’s late, and I want to show you how much it means to me before we go to sleep.”  
  
“Okay, but we have to be quiet, okay? If we wake Monica up, I’ll never forgive you.”  
  
“I think we can manage that.”

“Lead the way.”

Carol took Maria by the hand and sauntered to Maria’s room, closing and locking the door behind them. She sat Maria down on the foot of the bed and sat on her knees on the ground, situating herself between Maria’s legs, kissing her. Maria inhaled sharply and bit her lip. “I don’t believe I will ever be tired of this,” Maria said, as Carol removed her clothes.


	4. I'm Not Dead, Just Changing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chapter cw: lesbophobic slur
> 
> Three months after the end of chapter 3. This is where my fic diverges from the film canon. Carol gets caught in the explosion, but she doesn't get kidnapped by an alien dude; they find her and she goes home to Maria instead.
> 
> During a confrontation with Maria's ex-husband in which he questions the nature of Maria's relationship with Carol, Carol discovers she now has powers. Carol and Maria go to the middle of the nowhere in the bayou to try to figure out what Carol's abilities are, how they work, and how they can be controlled.

Carol woke up, a big knot on the back of her head. An Airman was helping her up. “She’s alive!” he shouted, as he put his arm around his shoulder for support. As she rose and took in her surroundings, she remembered the explosion.

“I am?” she asked, still disoriented.

“You shouldn’t be, Ma’am, after that blast.”

A Major was waiting for her, and while she couldn’t stand at attention, she gave a shaky salute. “At ease, Captain. We thought nothing could survive that crash or the fireworks after. But here you are. Safe and sound. How do you feel?”

Carol chuckled. “Like somebody whacked me over the head with about two tons of steel, Sir.”

He nodded. “You look mainly intact. We’ll get you to medical and have you checked out just to be sure.”

“I don’t wanna see a medic. I just wanna go home and nap for about seven years.”

“You know I can’t let that happen, Captain. There are rules and regulations around here.”

“Right, Sir. This Airman will just have to help me hop right over there, then.” she gave the lower officer a pat on the back. “Let’s go, Airman… My eyes are fucked up. What does it say on your tag?”

“Jones, Ma’am.”

“Alright, Jones. Let’s get this over with, shall we?”

“Yes, Ma’am. Major?”

“Dismissed, officers.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Carol said, hands on her stomach, feeling like she was barely holding her guts in place.

* * *

After the medics cleared her, Carol was escorted home. Maria would be worried sick, she knew. They helped her inside. Maria gasped sharply as she walked through the door. Her puffy eyes let Carol know Maria had been crying, and she couldn’t even guess how long. “Is she okay?” she asked the officers.

“Just a thump on the head, apparently,” one of them replied. “She does have a concussion, though, so you’ll have to watch her tonight.”

“I will. You can leave now.” she didn’t bother with formal language, as this was her home and she was off duty.

“Yes, Ma’am.” they said, and obliged.

As soon as they left, Maria rushed over and hugged her, tears streaming down her face. “I thought I lost you. They were telling me they might not even find your body.”

“I’m sorry, babe. But I’m here now, okay? I know it must’ve been hell. I’ll never do that to you again.”

“You can’t promise me that, Carol.” Maria sniffled.

Carol smiled grimly. “You’re right. You can’t either. It’s what we chose when we signed up.”

“I don’t know if I can just let things go on like this. If I lose you, or Monica loses either of us, I… I don’t want to think about what that’ll look like.”

Carol kissed Maria’s hand. “Hey. We’ll get through this. We’ll finish our service commitment together, and I’ll fly commercial, and we’ll be safe, and who knows? Maybe one day it’ll be legal for us to say ‘I do.’”

Maria wiped her face. “You’re dreaming right now.”

“Anything’s possible. How’s Monica?”

“Luckily, she’s been with her dad all day. She has no idea this happened, and I intend to keep it that way.”

“Good. Now what I’m hearing is I nearly died, and we’re alone in this house together.”

Incredulously, Maria said, “You’ve only got one thing on your mind, don’t you?”

“Always. And that’s you. Right now, it’s getting you in bed and remembering how great it is to be alive.”

“It’s not a good idea, after what you just went through. You need rest, and I need to watch you and make sure you don’t actually die in your sleep.”

“I’m fine!” Carol protested.

“Tomorrow, if you’re still feeling OK. I’m too wrought to even consider it right now.”

“Okay, okay. Will you sing to me?”

“I’m not doing Lita Ford again.”

“One of your favorites, then.”

“Alright. Get your ass in bed, and I will sing you to sleep.”

Carol liked it when Maria was all firm. It was hot and comforting and a bit cute at the same time. She obeyed her girlfriend. “I’m waiting,” she urged.

“Okay, okay.

_“My love,_   
_there’s only you in my life,_   
_the only thing that’s bright.”_

Carol smiled, planted a kiss on Maria’s cheek, laid back, closed her eyes, and smiled peacefully. Maria continued.

_“My first love,_   
_you’re every breath that I take._   
_You’re every step I make,_

_And I, I want to share_   
_all my love_   
_with you._   
_No one else will do._

_And your eyes, your eyes, your eyes,_   
_they tell me how much you care._   
_Ooh yes,_   
_you will always be_   
_my endless love._

“Go to sleep, babe.” Maria told her.

“I’m trying! It’s in the middle of the day, okay?”

“Shut up and rest so that you can get better.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Carol muttered.

It took about half an hour, but Carol eventually drifted off, and Maria watched her sleep from a chair against the wall. Her girlfriend didn’t look like someone who nearly died merely a couple of hours ago.

* * *

**THE NEXT MORNING**

_KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK._  
  
Maria jolted awake. She shook Carol to make sure her girlfriend made it through the night okay. Carol stirred, yawning, waking up herself. “COMING!” Maria shouted. “Hey, babe. You gotta get up. Whoever this is can’t know we’ve been sharing a bed, can they? You need to go to the living room, okay?”

Carol grumbled in protest. Maria quickly slipped on some clothes and placed some next to Carol on the bed. “Get dressed. NOW.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Carol muttered, hazily sitting up and changing out of yesterday’s clothes and into the new ones Maria gave her.

_KNOCK KNOCK._

“Just a minute!” Maria called. “Seriously, Carol, hurry up.”

Once dressed, Carol soared through the living room and crashed on the couch.

Maria answered the door. It was Monica and her father. “Ray. Did she behave herself?”

“She was an angel, as always. What took you so long to answer?” Ray peered inside and spotted Carol on the couch. He fixed his gaze on Maria.

“I had to get dressed, Ray. I can’t be answering the door in undies.”

“I wish you would, though,” Ray chuckled.

Maria crossed her arms, unamused. “Monica, baby, give me a kiss and then come inside and say hi to Carol.”

Monica did as instructed. “Mom!” she exclaimed, gleefully, running to Carol.

“I wanted to talk to you about that,” Ray said pointedly. “How come she’s calling your Air Force buddy 'Mom?'  **You’re**  her mom.”

“She’s just at that age where every woman is ‘Mom’ or ‘Mama’ to her. It’s normal.”

Ray put his hand in the doorway with a force that suggested it was a possible threat of violence. “Is it, Maria? She’s been saying her mamas are 'in love' with each other.”

Carol sat watching. Her fists clenched.

Maria remained calm. “She’s a kid. She’s little. She must’ve heard me say, ‘I love you, you’re my best friend.’ and gotten confused.”

Ray shoved his face directly into Maria’s space. “You think I’m stupid? You think I don’t see what’s going on here?”

Carol’s eyes started to glow, and then flames formed around her fists. “Whoa.” Monica gasped.

Maria stood her ground. “What are you accusing me of, Ray?”

“You damn well know what.” Ray stepped closer to Maria.

Maria called out to Monica. “Monica, honey, go to your room. Your daddy and me need to have a private talk. Carol, watch her for me, will you?”

“But mama-” Monica protested.

Carol stood up, walked over to the door, and stood behind Maria, fists still aflame and eyes still glowing. “Is there a problem, Ray?”

Ray smirked. “What is this? A light show? Smoke and mirrors? You don’t scare me, little girl.”

“Carol, I got this.” Maria said, not flinching.

“Things get physical, you respond, when you win, you’ll wound his pride and he’ll be back with buddies and a six pack of brewskies in his belly. Or he could risk further embarrassment and take you to court. He could win if you rough him up enough. If you lose, he’ll mess up your pretty face, and we can’t have that.”

“Back off, dyke. I’m talking to my wife.”

“Ex-wife, Ray. You don’t now, nor have you ever, owned me.”

Ray raised his arm up to hit Maria, and as it came swinging, Carol stopped it in midair, the flames coming from her fists blistering his skin. Maria’s eyes grew wide as she watched it unfold.

Ray let out an inhuman anguished scream of pain. "I don't know how you did this, or what you are, but I'm gonna find out!" He yelled as ran into his car and drove off. Carol relaxed her fists, her eyes stopped glowing, and the flames disappeared.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know, it’s weird.”

“That’s an understatement, babe. Has that ever happened before?”

“Like was I born able to burn people with my bare hands? No. It must’ve been the explosion.” Carol concluded.

“Why in God’s green Earth would this have anything to do with that?”

“The engine in the ship was unique. Nothing else on this planet like it. I don’t know the details, but it’s possible when it exploded, it did things to me that were also… unique. I could’ve absorbed its power.” Carol explained.

Maria’s eyes darted back and forth, trying to process this information. “How much power are we talking?”

“The ship was built for long-distance space travel, hon. Faster than light. That much power.”

“That’s impossible.”

Carol shrugged. “Dr. Lawson cracked it. She told me a wild story about being an alien or something, trying to stop an intergalactic war.”

“Well, that can’t be for real.”

“Or can it? She told me I had to destroy the engine, or people would come to it, and they would destroy all of us.”

“You believe her?” Maria asked.

“I think I might. I think I saw one. An alien. My memory’s fuzzy, though, there’s only bits and pieces.”

Maria held Carol’s hand. “Your memory could be trying to piece together what it’s lost. You can’t trust it to be accurate right now.”

Carol nodded. “I know. But, even if the doc was lying about who she was the whole time I knew her, I really think that what she said to me before the explosion was the honest-to-God truth. Or she believed it was.”

“So what do we do? If you absorbed all that energy, they could come for you. We have to warn somebody.”

“Where can we go? Who would believe us, really?”

Maria shook her head. “I don’t know, baby, I don’t know. Maybe if you lay low, it will be fine. But that means what happened just now with Ray can’t happen again. You need to learn how to control this stuff.”

“Well, how do I do that?!”

Maria threw her hands up in exasperation. “I don’t know!”

“I need somewhere I can test them, with nobody watching. See what I can do. Then maybe I can figure out how to control it.”

“Where could we possibly do that?”

“I have an idea.”

* * *

Deep in the bayou, Carol clenched her fists tight and tried to will her fists into lighting aflame. “It’s not working,” she reported.

“I can see that,” Maria replied. “How’d you do it before?”

Carol sighed. “I don’t know, I just got really mad.”

“I can make you mad, then.”

“Please don’t.”

“Classic rock is inferior to rap music. Your mother is a lovely Christian woman. You should wear a dress and smile sometime, you’ll look pretty.”

Carol scoffed. “It’s not gonna work.”

“You are short-tempered, more stubborn than a wild bull, and you break more stuff than one, too. It’s a small miracle you haven’t been dishonorably discharged by now.”

“Honestly, I’m a bit proud of that.”

“You’re foolish, impulsive. Your father was right about you.”

Carol grit her teeth. “What did you say, Maria?”

Maria crossed her arms. “I said,  **your father was right about you.** ”

Carol growled softly and her eyes flickered and glowed yellow. Her fists lit up. Her face lightened. “It worked!”

“Great, now punch a pussy willow or something.”

Carol found a tree covered in Spanish moss and punched it as suggested. It burned a whole through the trunk that nearly took the whole thing down. “Wow.”

Maria threw a rock at Carol, and Carol instinctively hit it with a beam of energy. The rock disintegrated. “That’s new,” Maria observed.

* * *

 

They spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what Carol could do and how she could control it. They figured out that her abilities were tied to her emotions. They wrapped up and went home, and found the sitter asleep in the living room, holding Monica, the TV still on.

They woke up the sitter and put Monica to bed. Sitting on the couch, Carol held Maria. “Does it scare you? What if we have a fight, and I get angry, and something happens? What if I accidentally use my powers on you?””

“That won’t happen, okay? Because your powers are still a part of  **you** , and no matter what you can do, I love you and I know you could never hurt me or Monica, or anyone who wasn’t being a jerk.”

“What if those aliens come looking for us, and I can’t stop them?”

“Then at least we’ll all be together for the end of the world.”

“That does  **not**  make me feel better,” Carol laughed.

“Sorry, babe, it’s the best I got.”

“You’re going to have to work on your pep talks, hon.”

“Well, maybe I can be helpful some other way." Maria turned around and leaned into Carol, kissing her, softly at first, and then with passion, disabling Carol’s ability to think about anything else. Maria took Carol by the hand and led her to their room, locking the door behind them as she pressed her lips against Carol's and her hands wandered.


End file.
